The Dutch Drought's Surge in Funderingsproblemen Is Quietly Becoming an Internationals-Only Deposit Trap

KCAF, the Dutch centre of expertise on foundations, is now logging 36 to 40 foundation damage reports every single week. That number is climbing as the drought drags on and groundwater levels across the Netherlands keep dropping.

The mechanism is brutally simple. Hundreds of thousands of older Dutch homes — especially those built before 1970 — sit on wooden pile foundations driven into soft peat and clay soil. For centuries, those piles stayed submerged in groundwater. Rot couldn't take hold underwater. Now the water table is falling, the tops of the piles hit air, and the wood starts to rot and decay. The house sinks. Unevenly. Cracks appear in walls. Floors tilt. Doors stick.

The Rli and other expert bodies estimate roughly 425,000 buildings in the Netherlands are already affected or at high risk by 2035. More than 120,000 of those are severe enough that repairs are mandatory. The average repair cost per building is €92,000. The total projected bill, including loss of property value and wider economic damage, could reach €54 billion.

This is a slow-moving disaster. And it's happening fastest in the places internationals want to live — Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Gouda. Historic canal houses. Charming old townhouses. Exactly the rentals that look beautiful in a Funda or Pararius listing and hide a structural nightmare underneath.

Here's where it gets ugly. The visible symptoms of funderingsproblemen — cracks in interior walls, sloping or uneven floors, doors and windows that stick — are easy to attribute to tenant negligence if you don't know what you're looking at. A landlord walks through at checkout, sees a crack above the bedroom doorframe, and calls it 'damage.' The tenant, who lived there for a year and never thought twice about that hairline crack, suddenly sees €2,000 deducted from their deposit.

Reports from tenant advocacy organisations like!WOON and coverage from IamExpat have already documented that international tenants are disproportionately likely to lose part or all of their rental deposits in the Netherlands. The combination of language barriers, unfamiliarity with Dutch tenancy law, and short residency timelines makes internationals the easiest targets.

Dutch law says landlords must return deposits within 14 days of lease termination. The Good Landlordship Act (2023) caps deposits at twice the monthly rent. But enforcement is weak. If a landlord withholds your deposit, you have to take legal action to get it back. For an expat on a two-year contract who's already packing to leave the country, that's usually not realistic.

And some landlords are pushing the limits hard. IamExpat documented a case where a landlord demanded an €8,600 deposit on a rental costing €1,400 per month — well above what the law allows. When the stakes are that high, and the tenant doesn't know their rights, the landlord holds all the cards.

Dutch buyers are starting to wise up. From April 2026, property valuations (taxaties) in the Netherlands must include a foundation risk label — a funderingslabel. Buyers can request a funderingsrapport before signing anything. Municipalities maintain funderingskaarten — publicly accessible maps showing where foundation risk is highest. The information exists. The infrastructure is there.

But it's built for buyers, not renters.

There is no mandatory disclosure of foundation status for rental properties. A landlord in Amsterdam who knows perfectly well their 1930s canal house has rotting wooden piles is under no obligation to tell the international tenant signing a 12-month lease. The tenant doesn't know to ask for a funderingsrapport. They don't know the municipality has a funderingskaart they could check. They don't know that 'uneven floors' in a viewing isn't charming character — it's a red flag.

The information asymmetry is staggering. A Dutch renter might have heard of funderingsproblemen from a friend, a news segment, or a parent who dealt with it. An international arriving in the Netherlands for a tech job in Eindhoven or a master's in Delft is focused on location, commute, and whether the apartment has a washing machine. Foundation risk isn't on their radar because it isn't on anyone's radar when you're new to a country.

And landlords know this. In a market with chronic housing shortages and intense competition, they can offer properties with known foundation issues to the people least likely to contest them.

If you're an international renting in the Netherlands — especially in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, or any historic city centre — there are a few things I'd do before signing and at checkout.

First, check the municipality's funderingskaart before you view a property. Most Dutch municipalities have these online now. If the building is in a high-risk zone, that's not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it means you need to be alert. Second, during the viewing, look for the warning signs: sloping floors, cracks above doorframes and window frames, doors that don't close properly, visible gaps between walls and ceilings. These are not cosmetic issues in older Dutch housing. They're symptoms of foundation movement. Third, photograph everything at intake — every crack, every uneven floor, every sticky door. Date-stamp the photos. Send them to the landlord in writing. This is your proof that the damage was pre-existing.

At House Hunter, we've seen users lose deposits over 'damage' that was clearly structural. We can't fix the regulatory gap — that's on the Dutch government. But we can tell you what to look for, and we can flag listings in high-risk zones so at least you're walking in with your eyes open.

The honest truth: the best protection right now is information. The system isn't going to protect you automatically. Until mandatory foundation disclosure applies to rentals the way it's starting to apply to sales, internationals are on their own.

The drought isn't a one-off. Climate projections suggest prolonged dry periods will become more frequent in the Netherlands, meaning groundwater levels will keep fluctuating and wooden pile foundations will keep rotting. The 36–40 weekly reports KCAF is logging now will grow. The €54 billion total repair bill is a 2035 projection — we're not there yet, and every year the problem compounds.

Experts and advisory bodies are calling for a national approach: mandatory disclosure of foundation status for all property transactions including rentals, affordable repair loan schemes, stronger enforcement of deposit return rules, and better public access to foundation risk data. These are sensible recommendations. None of them are law yet for the rental market.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands is simultaneously debating limits on international student numbers — a policy shift projected to cost the country €5 billion. The housing market is already hostile enough for internationals without a hidden deposit trap layered on top. If the Dutch government wants to remain attractive to skilled migrants, students, and international workers, the foundation crisis can't keep being treated as a buyer's problem. Renters are paying for it. Specifically, international renters are paying for it.

The funderingskaart exists. The funderingsrapport exists. The knowledge exists. What's missing is the requirement to use any of it before an international tenant signs a lease and hands over two months' rent.